Sunday, April 22, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Some links
http://www.theartofquitting.com/
TheArtOfQuitting.com is a creative platform for still-smokers. It’s a place where you can find and share the inspiration to quit. Because to keep smoking is easy, but to quit and stay that way is an art. Submit your own quit-smoking statement. Do it to motivate yourself and to inspire others.
http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/
the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in great quality
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Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.
The project, which Russia is coordinating with the U.S. and Canada, would take 10 to 15 years to complete, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters in Moscow today. State organizations and private companies in partnership would build and control the route, known as TKM-World Link, he said.
A 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor from Siberia into the U.S. will feed into the tunnel, which at 64 miles will be more than twice as long as the underwater section of the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and France, according to the plan. The tunnel would run in three sections to link the two islands in the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S.
``This will be a business project, not a political one,'' Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia's agency for special economic zones, said at the media briefing. Russian officials will formally present the plan to the U.S. and Canadian governments next week, Razbegin said.
The Bering Strait tunnel will cost $10 billion to $12 billion, and the rest of the investment will be spent on the entire transport corridor, the plan estimates.
``The project is a monster,'' Yevgeny Nadorshin, chief economist with Trust Investment Bank in Moscow, said in an interview. ``The Chinese are crying out for our commodities and willing to finance the transport links, and we're sending oil to Alaska.''
In Alaska, a supporter of the project is former Governor Walter Joseph Hickel, who plans to co-chair a conference on the subject in Moscow next week.
``Governor Hickel has long supported this concept, and he talks about it and writes about it,'' said Malcolm Roberts, a senior fellow at the Anchorage-based Institute of the North, a research policy group focused on Arctic issues. Hickel governed Alaska from 1966 to 1969 as a Republican and then from 1990 to 1994 as a member of the Independence Party.
Alaska's current officials, however, are preoccupied with other issues, including a plan to develop a pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the lower 48 U.S. states, Roberts said.
The U.S. government's Federal Railroad Administration isn't directly involved in talks about the link, agency spokesman Warren Flatau said today.
Finance Agencies
Tsar Nicholas II, Russia's last emperor, was the first Russian leader to approve a plan for a tunnel under the Bering Strait, in 1905, 38 years after his grandfather sold Alaska to America for $7.2 million. World War I ended the project.
The planned undersea tunnel would contain a high-speed railway, highway and pipelines, as well as power and fiber-optic cables, according to TKM-World Link. Investors in the so-called public-private partnership include OAO Russian Railways, national utility OAO Unified Energy System and pipeline operator OAO Transneft, according to a press release which was handed out at the media briefing and bore the companies' logos.
Russia and the U.S. may each eventually take 25 percent stakes, with private investors and international finance agencies as other shareholders, Razbegin said. ``The governments will act as guarantors for private money,'' he said.
The World Link will save North America and Far East Russia $20 billion a year on electricity costs, said Vasily Zubakin, deputy chief executive officer of OAO Hydro OGK, Unified Energy's hydropower unit and a potential investor.
Transport Electricity
``It's cheaper to transport electricity east, and with our unique tidal resources, the potential is real,'' Zubakin said. Hydro OGK plans by 2020 to build the Tugurskaya and Pendzhinskaya tidal plants, each with capacity of as much as 10 gigawatts, in the Okhotsk Sea, close to Sakhalin Island.
The project envisions building high-voltage power lines with a capacity of up to 15 gigawatts to supply the new rail links and also export to North America.
Russian Railways is working on the rail route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk in the Sakha republic, to Uelen on the Bering Strait, a 3,500 kilometer stretch. The link could carry commodities from eastern Siberia and Sakha to North American export markets, said Artur Alexeyev, Sakha's vice president.
The two regions hold most of Russia's metal and mineral reserves ``and yet only 1.5 percent of it is developed due to lack of infrastructure and tough conditions,'' Alexeyev said.
Cluster Projects
Rail links in Russia and the U.S., where an almost 2,000- kilometer stretch from Angora to Fort Nelson in Canada would continue the route, would cost up to $15 billion, Razbegin said. With cargo traffic of as much as 100 million tons annually expected on the World Link, the investments in the rail section could be repaid in 20 years, he said.
``The transit link is that string on which all our industrial cluster projects could hang,'' Zubakin said.
Japan, China and Korea have expressed interest in the project, with Japanese companies offering to burrow the tunnel under the Bering Strait for $60 million a kilometer, half the price set down in the project, Razbegin said.
``This will certainly help to develop Siberia and the Far East, but better port infrastructure would do that too and not cost $65 billion,'' Trust's Nadorshin said. ``For all we know, the U.S. doesn't want to make Alaska a transport hub.''
The figures for the project come from a preliminary feasibility study. A full study could be funded from Russia's investment fund, set aside for large infrastructure projects, Bystrov said.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Bush Finds Error In Fermilab Calculations
BATAVIA, IL–President Bush met with members of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory research team Monday to discuss a mathematical error he recently discovered in the famed laboratory's "Improved Determination Of Tau Lepton Paths From Inclusive Semileptonic B-Meson Decays" report.
"I'm somewhat out of my depth here," said Bush, a longtime Fermilab follower who describes himself as "something of an armchair physicist." "But it seems to me that, when reducing the perturbative uncertainty in the determination of Vub from semileptonic Beta decays, one must calculate the rate of Beta events with a standard dilepton invariant mass at a subleading order in the hybrid expansion. The Fermilab folks' error, as I see it, was omitting that easily overlooked mathematical transformation and, therefore, acquiring incorrectly re-summed logarithmic corrections for the b-quark mass. Obviously, such a miscalculation will result in a precision of less than 25 percent in predicting the resulting path of the tau lepton once the value for any given decaying tau neutrino is determined."
The Bush correction makes it possible for scientists to further study the tau lepton, a subatomic particle formed by the collision of a tau neutrino and an atomic nucleus.
Bush resisted criticizing the Fermilab scientists responsible for the error, saying it was "actually quite small" and that "anyone could have made the mistake."
"High-energy physics is a complex and demanding field, and even top scientists drop a decimal point or two every now and then," Bush said. "Also, I might hasten to add that what I pointed out was more a correction of method than of mathematics. Experimental results on the Tevatron accelerator would have exposed the error in time, anyway."
Fermilab director Michael Witherell said the president was being too modest "by an order of magnitude."
"In addition to gently reminding us that even the best minds in the country are occasionally fallible, President Bush has saved his nation a few million dollars," Witherell said. "We would have made four or five runs on the particle accelerator with faulty data before figuring out what was wrong. But, thanks to Mr. Bush, we're back on track."
"It's true, I dabbled in the higher maths during my Yale days," said Bush, who spent three semesters as an assistant to Drs. Kasha and Slaughter at Yale's renowned Sloane High-Energy Physics Lab. "But I didn't have the true gift for what Gauss called 'the musical language in which is spoken the very universe.' If I have any gift at all, it's my instinct for process and order."
Continued Bush: "As much as I enjoyed studying physics at Yale, by my junior year it became apparent that I could far better serve humanity through a career in statecraft."
While he says he is "flattered and honored" by the tau-neutrino research team's request that he review all subsequent Fermilab publications on lepton-path determination, Bush graciously declined the "signal honor."
"This sort of thing is best left to the likes of [Thomas] Becher and [Matthias] Neubert, not a dilettante such as myself," Bush said. "I just happened to have some time on the plane coming back from the European G8 summit, decided to catch up on some reading, and spotted one rather small logarithmic branching-ratio misstep in an otherwise flawless piece of scientific scholarship. Anyone could have done the same."
Source
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Giant leap for mankind wasn't enough to clear Customs
It was a small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind, but for United States Customs it was just another day at the office. Which is why when the triumphant crew of Apollo 11, led by Neil Armstrong, returned to Earth, one of the first questions they faced was: are you going through the red channel or the green channel?
Documents which have just come to light via the internet show that even if you've just travelled to the Moon and back - especially if you've just travelled to the Moon and back - the US Customs wants to know what you've got. Anyone who has visited the US will be familiar with the huge list of items which travellers are required to declare, such as plants, drugs and other preparations.
Historians at Nasa, the US space administration, have confirmed that the document, signed by the three crew members, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, is authentic. It lists their departure point as "Moon" and arrival as "Honolulu" on 24 July 1969.
But what, Customs wanted to know, was in those bags? "Moon rock and Moon dust samples," the crew responded. How many people had disembarked or joined the round trip from Cape Kennedy? Thankfully, the answer to both was "nil" - no lost souls and no extra aliens. And was anyone ill, or were there "any other conditions on board which may lead to the spread of disease" - which in this case would presumably be mysterious space viruses? "To be determined", the crew responded to the latter question, though the test of time suggests that nothing untoward happened.
It is unclear whether this practice became the pro forma for returning lunar astronauts from Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. "We have a lot of records here, but that would be something really for Customs," said Colin Fries, a Nasa archivist. "It's hard to prove a negative."
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Friday, April 13, 2007
10 Most Expensive Computer Keybords
It used to be that graphics cards and processors defined a PC but I for one think the most defining characteristic of a computer are the parts you actually interact with: the display, mouse and keyboard.
1. Happy Hacking Keyboard HP Japan, PFU Ltd 525,000 yen 2. 2000-IS-DT, 2000-IS-PM Stealth Computer $2,200.00 3. TouchStream LP, Fingerworks $1500+ 4. Executive Keyboard, Maltron £550.00 5. Dual Handed Ergonomic 3D, Maltron £375.00, £435.00 6. Professional II™, Datahand $675.00 7. Keyless Ergonomic Keyboard, orbiTouch $399.00 8. Comfort Keyboard, Comfort Keyboard Systems $349.00 9. Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000, Microsoft $249 ?. Optimus Keyboard, Art Lebedev Studio $???
PFU Ltd of Ishikawa, Japan, an affiliate of Fujitsu, is producing the Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional HP Japan, a made-to-order keyboard handcoated with Urushi lacquer. This made to order keyboard is coated many times using a special brush made from the hairs of virgins, and then powdered with gold dust! The price for this expensive computer keyboard is a grand sum of 525,000 yen or about US $4,440.
Read Japanese? Check out their website.
Going to war with your keyboard? Stealth Computer makes devices to reduce risk of failure in hazardous areas, the 2000-IS-DT & 2000-IS-PM come enclosed in non-corrosive stainless steel with an optical isolated barrier ensuring NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) 4X protection. What other keyboard has a temperature range of -40F to +194F (-40C to +90C)? Stealth makes many other expensive steel NEMA keyboards, but this one looks like the costliest. We’ll ignore the rest for the sake of making this article more interesting.
See more about the 2000-IS models.
These mystical keyboards originally retailed for $340 but since FingerWorks has been bought out and no longer produces keyboards, TouchStream LPs in great condition have started selling at inflated prices to fanatics. You can look for yours on eBay if you don’t mind spending hundreds on used computer accessories.
No longer in production, but it still has a website.
Maltron produces ergonomic keyboards they claim reduce the stresses on fingers, wrists, and arms while typing. This is one of their newer models made with Perspex, Stainless-Steel and Polycarbonate key-tops.
Whats a Maltron? Here’s the product page.
Get your Maltron keyboard in Qwerty, Maltron or Dvorak layouts! There are also US English, UK English, French, German, Norwegian/Norsk and Swedish versions available. The letter keys are angled inwards to match natural finger movements and the keys for the longer fingers are recessed. Getting a trackball on your crazy 3d keyboard will cost you an extra £65.
Would girls make fun of me if I had this at my apartment?
What if a keyboard could be adjusted to fit the size and shape of each person’s hands? We’ll you’d have a Datahand! The unique finger and thumb switches change the 4 different typing modes.
Feel the difference!
The orbiTouch Keyless ergonomic Keyboard creates a keystroke when you slide the two domes into one of their eight respective positions. You type the different characters by sliding the domes to create letters and numbers. The orbiTouch Keyless ergonomic Keyboard also has an integrated mouse, so moving the domes gives you full mouse and keyboard capability.
Is it just me, or does this look like some 1980s children’s toy?
The Comfort Keyboard is separated into three sections, which can be adjusted easily and locked into place. The Comfort Keyboard also features complete key reprogramming and a programmable “rest period indicator”, which reminds users to take a break?
Is it time for a break yet?
This media keyboard, otherwise known as the Ultimate Keyboard, due out in May features a magnetic dock with 4 USB ports. The ultra-thin ergonomic design was reportedly influenced by inspiration from details found in Cadillac and BMW interiors. An aluminum finish makes this keyboard quite attractive.
Be wowed by Microsoft’s product demo, or just see more pics.
We couldn’t finish a keyboard list without the OLED Keyboard. We’ve heard rumors it’ll cost $1200, but where will the OLED screen keyboard really place on the list of most expensive keyboards when it comes into production? So far, there have only been 3d renderings, but it has been reported a working model will debut at CeBIT later this month.
Check out some more renderings.
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
Free Text Messages - CallWave
With this innovative widget, you can send SMS messages to your friends worldwide from the convenience of your computer.
Add Apple widget Add Yahoo! widget Add Google gadget Add Vista gadget
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
PET - aquarium
She loves the idea of using liquid containers to make water animals. Contained/containing, trash/not-trash, like the jelly-fish or anemone: Living/non-living
She uses a combination of heat guns, soldering irons and different
cutting utensils to make these PETs. She wanted to work with glass but
this is more fun. She have as much material as She want just by fishing in
the garbage
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Don't Shave That Yak!
I want to give you the non-technical definition, and as is my wont, broaden it a bit.
Yak Shaving is the last step of a series of steps that occurs when you find something you need to do. "I want to wax the car today."
"Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I'll need to buy a new one at Home Depot."
"But Home Depot is on the other side of the Tappan Zee bridge and getting there without my EZPass is miserable because of the tolls."
"But, wait! I could borrow my neighbor's EZPass..."
"Bob won't lend me his EZPass until I return the mooshi pillow my son borrowed, though."
"And we haven't returned it because some of the stuffing fell out and we need to get some yak hair to restuff it."
And the next thing you know, you're at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can wax your car.
This yak shaving phenomenon tends to hit some people more than others, but what makes it particularly perverse is when groups of people get involved. It's bad enough when one person gets all up in arms yak shaving, but when you try to get a group of people together, you're just as likely to end up giving the yak a manicure.
Which is why solo entrepreneurs and small organizations are so much more likely to get stuff done. They have fewer yaks to shave.
So, what to do?
Don't go to Home Depot for the hose.
The minute you start walking down a path toward a yak shaving party, it's worth making a compromise. Doing it well now is much better than doing it perfectly later.
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Monday, April 9, 2007
Prison vs Work
IN PRISON: You spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell.
AT WORK: You spend the majority of your time in an 8X8 cubicle.
IN PRISON: You get three meals a day.
AT WORK: You get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.
IN PRISON: You get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK: You get more work for good behavior.
IN PRISON: The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK: You must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself.
IN PRISON: You can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK: You could get fired for watching TV and playing games.
IN PRISON: You get your own toilet.
AT WORK: You have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.
IN PRISON: They allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK: You aren’t even supposed to speak to your family.
IN PRISON: All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK: you get to pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
IN PRISON: You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK: You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.
IN PRISON: You must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK: They are called managers.
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Saturday, April 7, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The Homeless camera adventure
The idea is simple. Give people who live on the streets a camera. Publish the results. See life through the eyes of the homeless
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Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Half Life 2: The Tower of Terror
Someone built a virtual version of the Disney-MGM Studios Tower of Terror attraction in the popular Half-Life 2 game. Did a really good job too. The video walk-through is a little humorous for other reasons, but if this keeps up you won't need to visit Orlando to visit Walt Disney World.
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25 Most Memorable Quotes
Many things are said, and quoted, in 25 years. Some become catchphrases. Others we'd like to forget. And some words capture the essence of a news event, a phenomenom, or a time. List of Top 25 most memorable quotes of the last 25 years:
1"Let's roll."Todd Beamer, Sept. 11, 2001, just before he and other passengers attacked terrorists controlling United Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The White House may have been the target. President Reagan speaks in front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. By J. Scott Applewhite, AP 2"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"President Reagan, June 12, 1987, appealing to the Soviet leader to remove the Berlin Wall that divided East and West German sectors. It fell in 1989.
3"If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, Sept. 27, 1995, arguing that a glove used as murder evidence in the O.J. Simpson trial was too small.
4"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."President Clinton, Jan. 26, 1998, at a White House news conference.
5"You've got mail!"America Online, 1989. The voice, which still greets users, is El Edwards, the husband of an AOL customer service representative.
6"Read my lips: no new taxes."George H.W. Bush, Aug. 18, 1988, accepting the GOP presidential nomination in New Orleans. A tax hike later in his presidency was a factor in his loss for re-election.
7"Obviously a major malfunction."Steve Nesbitt, NASA public affairs officer, Jan. 28, 1986, shortly after the space shuttle Challenger exploded.
8"How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values?"Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Dec. 5, 1996, interpreted as a warning that stocks were too high. Markets plunged briefly the next morning.
9"You can't handle the truth!"Actor Jack Nicholson as Col. Nathan Jessup in the 1992 film A Few Good Men.
10"I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen, debating Republican Dan Quayle in Omaha on Oct. 5, 1988.
11"Just say no."Nancy Reagan's anti-drug campaign slogan, 1983.
12"I want to focus on my salad."Martha Stewart, June 25, 2002, on CBS' The Early Show, when questioned about the probe into her stock dealings.
13"Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?"Former Labor secretary Raymond Donovan, May 25, 1987, after being acquitted of fraud charges.
14"Keep hope alive."Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, July 19, 1988, in a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
15"I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."President Bush, Sept. 14, 2001, addressing police, firefighters and rescue workers at Ground Zero.
16"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."Vice President Cheney, March 16, 2003, on NBC's Meet the Press, describing how Iraqis will react when U.S. troops topple Saddam Hussein.
17"One more thing."Apple CEO Steve Jobs, 1999. He uses the phrase before unveiling products such as the iMac and iPod at computer shows.
18"Don't give up. Don't ever give up. "Former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano, March 4, 1993, accepting an ESPY Award shortly before he died of cancer.
19"It takes a village to raise a child."Hillary Rodham Clinton in her 1996 book, borrowing from an African proverb.
20"I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl."Russ Grimm, 1984, a Washington Redskin who ended his career as a player with three Super Bowl rings.
21"You gotta fight for your right to party. "The Beastie Boys, 1986, in the song Fight For Your Right.
22"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"Rodney King, May 1, 1992, after the acquittal of Los Angeles police in his beating trial sparked widespread rioting.
23"Where's the beef?"Wendy's TV commercial, 1984, later used by Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale to ridicule opponent Gary Hart.
24"I can't deny the fact that you like me! Right now, you like me!"Sally Field, March 25, 1985,. accepting the Best Actress Oscar for Places in the Heart.
25"Not that there's anything wrong with that."Jerry Seinfeld, Feb. 11, 1993, in the episode The Outing, later used whenever a gay character was discussed on the show. |
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Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
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